Trump orders new NIH women’s health division and White House task force

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday, October 19, directing the National Institutes of Health to establish a women’s health division and creating a White House task force to coordinate policy across the federal government.

The order gives the health and human services secretary, acting through the NIH director, 90 days to place the division within an appropriate NIH institute or center. It does not specify a new dollar amount for the initiative, and it says implementation is subject to available appropriations.

What the order requires

The new division is instructed to coordinate with NIH’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health. Its duties include reviewing understudied conditions, coordinating research and replication studies, improving women’s inclusion in clinical trials, strengthening compliance with NIH rules on sex as a biological variable, and moving scientific findings into clinical and public-health practice.

The order identifies a broad range of research priorities, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, autoimmune conditions, osteoporosis, mental health, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, infertility, maternal health, menopause, neurological disorders and aging. The list describes areas of focus rather than individual funding commitments.

Trump also established a White House Women’s Health Task Force, co-chaired by the secretary of health and human services and the White House chief of staff. Its membership includes leaders from NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies.

The task force is directed to connect research with prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care across different stages of life. It may seek input from medical researchers, technology companies, universities, philanthropies, state and local governments, tribal nations and community organizations.

What changed from the previous policy

Trump’s order revokes a November 2023 presidential memorandum that created a White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research and Executive Order 14120, issued in March 2024. The new order says the administration wants to broaden the federal approach beyond research and place greater emphasis on turning findings into clinical care.

That revocation does not by itself establish how individual grants or programs created under the earlier initiative will be handled. The practical effect will depend on agency implementation, future grant decisions and congressional funding.

First lady Melania Trump helped shape the initiative and joined the president for its announcement. In remarks released by the White House, she called for research aimed at conditions that uniquely affect women, faster movement of therapies from laboratories to patients, wider access to medical advances and more open discussion of women’s health.

Why the details matter

The executive order creates an organizational structure and a set of priorities, not a new treatment or immediate guarantee of expanded services. The first measurable deadline is the 90-day requirement for NIH to establish the division. The order does not name its director, identify where inside NIH it will sit or attach a dedicated budget.

Reuters and the Associated Press reported the planned NIH division and task force before and around the signing. The signed text now provides the controlling details: a division working alongside the existing women’s health research office, an interagency task force and an emphasis on translating research into care.

The next indicators will be NIH’s placement and staffing decision, the task force’s first actions and any budget or grant announcements. Those steps will show whether the order changes research priorities and patient care beyond reorganizing existing federal efforts.

Sources and image credit

Primary records: the signed executive order and the White House fact sheet. Independent confirmation: Reuters and the Associated Press.

Image: President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive at the White House Easter Egg Roll on April 21, 2025. Official White House photograph by Joyce N. Boghosian, via Wikimedia Commons; original on the White House Flickr account; public domain as a U.S. government work. Center-cropped and resized to 1600×900 with no text added. The photograph is illustrative and predates the October 19, 2026, announcement.